American Airlines has updated its 24-hour refund policy for nonrefundable tickets, shortening the eligibility window for last-minute bookings.
American Airlines has slightly narrowed the window for close-in bookings to be refunded within 24 hours of purchase.
In an unannounced change to its contract of carriage on July 29, American Airlines updated its policy to allow passengers to request refunds for nonrefundable tickets if reservations are canceled within 24 hours of booking and the reservation was made more than seven days before the departure of the first flight in the itinerary.
This is a change from the previous version, which allowed cancellations within 24 hours of booking if the reservation was made more than 48 hours before the departure of the first flight in the itinerary.
The move brings American’s policies in line with several other carriers, which are also in line with the minimum requirements set forth by the Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT requires airlines to offer either a refund within 24 hours of booking if made more than seven days in advance of travel or a 24-hour courtesy hold without collecting the fare. American still offers both a refund within 24 hours (also subject to the seven-day minimum before departure), and a free courtesy hold on many fares in excess of DOT requirements. Separate from the requirements, American allows customers to hold a reservation without payment for a longer period than 24 hours in exchange for a nominal fee.
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American’s policies match those of United, JetBlue, and Frontier.
Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines allow passengers to cancel within 24 hours as long as the flight is booked more than 24 hours in advance. Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines have no advance purchase requirement—any flight canceled within 24 hours of booking is eligible for a refund.
When it comes to 24-hour courtesy holds, American is the most generous. United offers them in limited circumstances. Most other airlines do not offer courtesy holds, instead requiring payment in order to confirm space on a flight.
The DOT has required airlines to offer 24-hour courtesy holds or refunds within 24 hours of booking since the issuance of the Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections (EAPP) rule during the Obama administration in 2011. Airlines are free to offer more generous policies than what is required by the rule.
The rule is designed to give air travel consumers added flexibility for booking mistakes like incorrect or misspelled names or misunderstanding of travel dates (like those involving flights that depart just after midnight, which can confuse customers on which day to go to the airport for their departure). Before implementing the rule, airlines often responded punitively to oversights or mistakes on the part of passengers, spurring complaints to the DOT. The seven-day advance rule allows airlines some leeway to protect their most precious revenue period, when last-minute bookers typically pay some of the highest fares, and close-in cancellations leave the airlines with little time to resell the seats to other buyers.
The rule applies to all airlines selling travel to or from U.S. airports, regardless of the airline’s country of origin. All international carriers serving the United States must also comply with the rule, although most of them limit their compliance only to itineraries involving a U.S. departure or arrival airport. European regulators do not have an equivalent version of this rule, so European airlines may apply it to flights involving U.S. points, but not to flights within Europe.
All airline tickets were once refundable. American was the first airline, early in the deregulated era, to introduce non-refundable fares in exchange for a discount, a pricing mechanism that quickly became standard across the industry and is still a limitation on most discounted fares today.